The Pineapple Girl and the Snow Girl

Dear Mom and Dad,

We went on a short trip today to…… Can you guess where it was? Okay, here’s a clue: “Mabuhay!” If your answer is “The Philippines”, then yes, you’ve guessed it right! (It is a greeting they use in the Philippines to welcome visitors, meaning “To life!”)

We did some weaving with Liezel, and we helped her cut strips of paper. We then used these to weave a sort of checkered pattern. We now have something we can use for a placemat! We also had a special guest from the Philippines who came over- it was Yasmin, J’s mom! We didn’t see her and J for a long time- we missed them so much. Yasmin, together with Hisami, also helped us to do some weaving- thank you so much! Oh, and do you know who else we haven’t seen in a long time? L! We were so happy to have her back and we were surprised when we saw her getting dropped off by her daddy. Wow, she certainly has grown taller! Welcome back, L!

Look at all the beautiful colors we mixed and matched!

Some of our friends enjoyed playing with the “sungka” that Liezel brought and put on the table; it consisted of shells played on a wooden tray. It was really interesting, and we hope we can play with it again tomorrow!

After cleaning up, we sat down with Pauline, who showed us the Philippine flag. We told her that we can see it has blue, red, and yellow colors. We also told her that we can see a sun, and three yellow stars. She explained to us that the three stars represent the 3 big islands in their country. Then, she also told us that in her country, they grow a lot of pineapples, and so she began to tell a story about the “Legend of the Pineapple”. She said that once upon a time, there was a mother and a daughter named Pina, who lived up in the mountains. The mother worked hard by herself, and Pina was so lazy. This made her so tired, that she became sick. She asked Pina to cook breakfast for them, and Pina began to do so half- heartedly. She kept asking, “Mommy, where’s the pot? Mommy where’s the spatula?” until the mother grew exasperated and said, “Oh I wish you will have lots and lots of eyes so you will see and find everything!” Lo and behold- it came true! She was surprised to find a fruit in their garden that looked like it had lots of eyes in it. She heard the fruit cry, “Mommy it’s me! I’m sorry I was so lazy!” and so she turned back into a girl. Mother and Pina apologized to each other, and from that day on, Pina helped her mom, and in their garden, the mysterious fruit continued to grow, and they found out it was yummy. They named it, “pineapple”. The end. So, we therefore promise that we will always help out, lest we turn into a pineapple. Don’t you think so? *Heehee*

We thanked Yasmin for joining us, and she said that she will back to “travel” with us again to the Philippines. Yay!

Everyone's interest was piqued as they looked at the pictures.

We had our snacks, and then we had our Show and Tell! Liezel was our host today, as she interviewed A. A showed us a big paper filled with lots of pictures of her on the snow!

“What’s in this picture?” Liezel asked.

“Umm that’s a fire!” A answered.

“Can you touch the fire?” Liezel said, pointing to the picture.

“No! That’s hot!” A replied. Then she pointed to another picture. “The snow is on the auto! The snow is on the car!” So we looked closer; there were lots of snow covering the cars!

“What’s this?” Liezel asked her, pointing to another picture.

“It’s like Santa’s” A answered, pointing to picture where she was pulling a small sled. She was right! Then, it was question time.

“What did you draw?” AA asked, pointing to a big drawing on the paper.

“It’s a snowman!” A told her.

“Where did you get the petals?” Y inquired, and she pointed to beautiful blue paper that covered the bottom.

“I cut it. Mommy and A cut it.” A answered.

“Where did you get the pictures?” B asked.

“Mommy helped me get it.” Was A’s answer.

To conclude our fabulous Show and Tell, A shared with us some meringue that looked “like a snowman”, as she puts it. Everyone had the meringue for dessert during lunch time; thank you so much, A!

Tomorrow is Hinamatsuri, and we’re almost done making our Odairi- sama and Ohina- sama with Hisami. So, see you again tomorrow, Ohana!